As we write this, it looked like Donald Trump will be the next president and the U.S. Senate will be controlled by Republicans. The results for the House of Representatives were still unclear.

We were thinking about what a lame duck President Biden and the lame duck Congress should do in the next couple months.

Our prediction: They will not do much. So we know this may be more wishful thinking than the path history will take.

We would love to see Biden and Congress move forward on protecting the Owyhee Canyonlands.

That part of Eastern Oregon can be so achingly beautiful it can seem fake. It deserves more protection.

There is broad agreement across Oregon that the unique Owyhee Canyonlands area needs protection from development, mining and other threats. However, thus far there is no final agreement on the timing and form of the protections. A similar predicament threatened the protection of the Steens Mountains 24 years ago – and provides a blueprint for how to resolve the impasse.

Ontario, OR — Citing increased urgency, the campaign to Protect the Owyhee Canyonlands is quickly gaining momentum. Twenty thousand individuals in Oregon and beyond have now signed the online petition calling on Oregon Senators Wyden and Merkley to work with President Biden to secure national monument designation for the Owyhee before the end of 2024. Growing support for the campaign reflects the importance of climate and conservation issues among key constituencies—especially young voters—and the Owyhee Canyonlands is the largest conservation opportunity remaining in the American West.

Prominently placed billboards and a flurry of direct-mail pieces are alerting Portlanders to a hot-button Oregon political issue—almost 500 miles away in Malheur County.

The aim of the campaign, however, is to put pressure on sometime-Portland resident, U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.).

“The largest conservation opportunity left in the American West is right here in Oregon,” reads the mailer, with an arrow pointing toward the state’s southeastern corner. “Ask Senators Ron Wyden and Jeff Merkley to work with President Biden to create an Owyhee Canyonlands national monument before the end of 2024!”

Following nearly five years of negotiations and three attempts by Oregon’s U.S. senators to get federal protection for southeast Oregon’s Owyhee Canyonlands, Oregon Gov. Tina Kotek is throwing her hat into the fight.

Gov. Tina Kotek threw her support behind the latest movement to establish a national monument in southeast Oregon’s Owyhee Canyonlands.

Kotek’s support is the latest in a chorus of voices from conservation groups and local tribes asking President Joe Biden to use the Antiquities Act to protect around 2.5 million acres of rugged canyons and rivers near the Idaho border.

Let’s list things that are exasperating about Congress. The lack of bipartisanship. The years it can take to do anything. And more.

This month Oregon Congressman Cliff Bentz, R-Ontario, reminded people on X, formerly Twitter, about a move he made to block certain protections for the Owyhee Canyonlands.

Some will find that exasperating. It’s not, though, completely different from what Oregon Democratic Sens. Ron Wyden and Jeff Merkley have been advocating. There is room for bipartisanship. But we bet you can guess how this story ends.

Ontario, OR — In an editorial published Tuesday, June 3, 2024, The Bend Bulletin declared that the “Owyhee Canyonlands deserves protection,” and that a national monument designation is likely the only path forward at this time.

A new poll by Expedition Strategies for the Oregon League of Conservation Voters reveals 73% of Oregonians support President Biden designating the Owyhee Canyonlands as a national monument. This support spans across party lines, with 95% of Democrats, 76% of Independents, and 40% of Republicans in favor. Additionally, 58% of voters in eastern Oregon back the designation.

Just southwest of Boise lies one of the last vast swaths of solitude in the United States.

The Owyhee Canyonlands, with stunning red gulches, winding rivers and a moon-like landscape where a volcano with a caldera once 600 times larger than Mount St. Helens erupted, stands as the largest unprotected wilderness area in the American West.

Locals might have once seen the Owyhees as the area’s best-kept secret: national park-quality wilderness without the tourists.

The Owyhee Canyonlands span Idaho, Oregon and Nevada. Conservations on the Oregon side want to see protections for the rugged desert area.

Ontario, OR — Citing increased urgency, the campaign to Protect the Owyhee Canyonlands is quickly gaining momentum. Twenty thousand individuals in Oregon and beyond have now signed the online petition calling on Oregon Senators Wyden and Merkley to work with President Biden to secure national monument designation for the Owyhee before the end of 2024. Growing support for the campaign reflects the importance of climate and conservation issues among key constituencies—especially young voters—and the Owyhee Canyonlands is the largest conservation opportunity remaining in the American West.